Resources are precious in a shared health system like the NHS. Hence the move to evidence-based medicine. High quality studies emphatically show homeopathy is no better than placebo (at best) and supporting evidence comes only from poor quality trials (usually conducted by pro-homeopathic researchers). In any case the fundamental idea – that water retains memory of heavily diluted medicine – is naive. Water molecules are always in motion, bumping into each other and thus can’t retain a pattern, let alone a memory. This is what defines water as a fluid. In short, homeopathy would rewrite fundamental laws of physics. There are two further objections to homeopathy. The first is ethical. Medicine should be based on informed consent. It is wrong to prescribe a treatment which is useless and scientifically implausible. Secondly, it is bad public policy to promote pseudoscience and gullibility. Prescribing homeopathy at public expense is intellectually, fiscally, medically and ethically wrong.

It has been known since 1865 that a typical 30C homeopathic pill contains no trace of the ingredient shown on the label. Such mislabeling would normally be illegal under fair trading law, but an exception has been made for homeopathic preparations. Since the pills contain no active ingredients, they can’t possibly have any effect. The “evidence” produced by homeopaths amounts to little more than anecdotes and testimonials: it is worthless.